Where did 2020 go???

This year, 2020, will certainly go down in history as a remarkable and significant event as we come towards the end of the year and there are still parts of the world afflicted by this insidious, silent killer. Victoria has been working its way out of this highly infectious disease with two lockdowns and sadly, quite a staggering number of lives lost! From the Primary library point of view, we started this year with a general focus on “kindness” and who was to know that this would become an important quality to show during these hard times. The students completed several activities where “kindness” was the key focus.

Kindness in action

Then during February and March when our life was still running relatively normally but the news had spread about this deadly disease, the library ensured to focus on this current affairs issue by looking at some simple sanitation methods that could be used to ensure we all stayed safe.

Handwashing is a must!

Later, lockdowns were called and schools went into remote learning! What a huge learning curve for everyone! From the primary library point of view, we were asked to provide work to students initially through Compass then later through google drive! These wonderful technologies were a challenge (and to some extent still remain so) but we tried our utmost to give the students some valuable literature appreciation through storytime and some follow up activities. We can only hope that our wonderful scientists and doctors find a much sought after vaccine in the near future. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and we hope your children will enjoy the Book Character Dress Up day on Wednesday 11th November.

Best wishes from the Primary Library staff…

…and Evelina Wroblewski, Teacher/Librarian signing off… wishing everyone the best of wishes in the years to come. Stay Safe, Stay Well and Always be Kind.

2020… a different sort of Real

What unusual times we live in! but the strength of the spirit remains true as we pull together for the common good, a great deal of benevolence has been seen in humankind.There have been countless lives lost and sadness throughout the world but there has also been an overwhelming display of kindness and goodness from many people.

Closer to home, our school has worked diligently to move to on-line learning and regardless of which platform one uses, the effort has been wholehearted to provide students with an educational package that will hopefully hold them in good stead during these unprecedented times.

Remember though, that life needs to have balance (which is an overriding factor in our curriculum) so it’s essential that work, rest and play are managed in a reasonable manner.

Some of the positive aspects of enduring this pandemic have been the return to some simple, backyard activities which involves all or some of the family; and a firmer family connection; the environment has benefited by the lack of pollution created by industry; there’s a sense of global togetherness like never before;

and it has engendered feelings of empathy, fairness and above all else, love because a world devoid of this is not humane. The admiration for all the hard-working healthcare workers, government bodies and teachers has risen to new heights and rightfully so!

There’s still a great deal to be thankful for and in light of that, we hope that our sense of gratitude to all community workers is extended forthrightly!!

Insofar as the primary library is involved, we have endeavoured to provide students with a weekly small dose of library oriented work which will sustain and not overwhelm them hopefully, at least, that is the hope!!

We’d like to wish everyone Ramadan Mubarak! Stay safe and healthy! and look out for each other!

Kindest regards from the primary library staff, Rawia, Iman and Evelina.

LIBRARY NEWS: March, 2020… ALREADY!?

Hi everybody,

My! Hasn’t the year flown by already!!?? I trust everyone is doing well and have adjusted to the routines and demands of school life! And what a tumultuous series of events that have occurred lately with this world wide bug affecting our well-being!!

All classes coming to the library have looked at what all this means and what they can do to help themselves stay safe and healthy. I hope that no-one is too anxious about this as doctors and scientists are working around the clock to create a vaccine and medicine to cure this pervading and obnoxious virus that has so unsettled many. Remember to keep perspective and stay strong and resilient!! And now for other news!!

The library has started with a vengeance once again; and classes have resumed as usual. We started by looking at some of the devastating events in Australia during our summer, namely the bushfires and how they’ve impacted our native fauna and flora. From that, we studied sharing the planet with Koalas—our much-loved indigenous animal which led to looking at bears because our children learnt that “koalas aren’t bears!!”

The new Prep children were welcomed to the library and have been learning where everything is a little at a time and that “the library is a quiet place”—they chant in unison!! So delightful!! We hope they remain that way!!

 

In term 2, we hope to run the National Simultaneous Storytime. The book featured this year is called: Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas” which is about a couple of chickens that like performing.

We will also run the IBC/Aligator Book Fair the last week of Ramadan, one week before Eid el Fitr in May. We hope the children will be able to buy up from the book fair and use these as gifts during this time.

We are in the process of organising the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. This year the Department of Education has changed its IT format for this program so we’re in the midst of sorting out the various steps required to get the children uploaded. In the meantime, they can continue reading and handwriting the name of the book they’re reading/have read in order to add to their list further down the track.

Usually, the VicPRC remains open till end of August so there’s plenty of time to read up to 30 books if you’re in junior grades (these also consist of those books that they have read to them) and 15 books if you’re from Years 3 onwards. We will add information via Compass and e-newsletter when the time arrives. As we have a 15 minutes silent reading activity right throughout the school, we are hoping that more students will get on board the VicPRC this year!! In the meantime, just make note of the title, author of books read at this time.

Here’s wishing everyone a great year! Full of productivity and fulfilment! Kind regards from the Primary Library staff: Rawia, Iman and Evelina.

Reading Matters… farewell 2019

As we almost bid another school year farewell, it seems fitting to reflect on how the year has panned out with its countless activities held at the school, is it any wonder that everyone is exhausted and waiting to reach that finish line! But, what a year it’s been with new beginnings for the Preps starting out; growth and development with the Year 3s morphing before our eyes and the Year 5s transitioning to high school! It’s all around us!

Using our Transdisciplinary Themes as my lens, I see how all of us have learnt how to share the planet carefully with such activities as the Nude Food week; we’ve experienced who we are in the many ways possible in human nature; we’ve expressed ourselves creatively for instance at the Character parade where colourful costumes abounded; we’ve felt where we are in place and time by learning about our history, past, present and future; and also how to be responsible for ourselves by learning how we can organise ourselves to manage our time and efforts more efficiently!!

Phew! What another milestone of a year we’ve reached!

 

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and safe, long, summer holidays full of rest, relaxation and fun! I can only hope that part of that involves the wonderful and soothing practice of reading! Ah! It’s such a balm! And I wish everyone happy reading! This very skill remains at the heart of everything, no computer, no machine, very little communication in fact, can be used without this beautiful skill to help and guide us through the vast, swift changes that are a part of our lives each day!

 

On behalf of the Primary Library, best wishes and kind regards.

Character Parade 2019 – Reading is my Super Power!

This year students were asked to come dressed as their favourite heroes from books or superheroes from the mass media and they didn’t disappoint!! The theme was: Reading is my Secret Power which we discussed during library time. It was a fabulously colourful and bright Character Parade that was held in the hall at the end of Term 3 on Wednesday 18th September. Everyone  seemed to enjoy themselves and revelled in showing their costumes to all the other classes who attended. The winner of the best picture book for 2019 was: “Cicada” by Shaun Tan which when interviewed he said that he based the book on his father’s work experience here in Australia from a migrant’s perspective. All the teachers shone out with their gorgeous outfits too and we hope everyone enjoyed it too!

IBC Ali Gator Book Fair

We have had a great response to the IBC Ali Gator Book Fair in Week 6 from Monday 27th May to Friday 31st May!

Many thanks to those who bought some of the lovely items and we look forward to doing it all over again next year, inshallah!! Because of the generous response, this means we are able to receive some lovely Islamic storybooks for our library! Again, your support and co-operation means everything to us!

On behalf of the library staff, I’d like to wish everyone

Eid Mubarak and happy festivities to all! 

Welcome to 2019

Welcome to 2019 full of its usual expectations and goals, it promises to be a memorable year full of activities and events at AIA. Even though reading is always an important skill to attain for life, this year at our school, the emphasis is strongly on this skill and its acquisition. In the library, we’re very pleased that reading is reaching such a high status in the curriculum as indeed it should be! The school plans to make reading in class a highly enjoyable and formative activity where children can engage in meaningful reading activities to engage them and most importantly increase their reading capacities.

Here in the library, we continue to provide opportunities for reading by having a variety of activities such as Silent Reading, Simultaneous story time in May, author studies, daily story time, book fairs and the Character Parade in semester one.

We hope as parents, you too will acknowledge how important reading is, not only for school purposes but for life, indeed, it is a lifelong skill that once acquired can provide great opportunities and enjoyable lifelong.

 

Farewell 2018

Ms Evelina and Ms Rawia

Welcome again to our latest article for our library blog! I wanted to highlight some of the ways the library uses the PYP overview to inform students and focus on some of the more pertinent aspects of the PYP program such as the Transdisciplinary themes and the five essential elements. To that end, please find below some different articles and posters that have been devised for the library taking into consideration the PYP curriculum.

“We have outlined to the children their routines and responsibilities and have also discussed at length the two main expectations we have for them this term which are being RESPECTFUL to each other and the library staff as well as being CO-OPERATIVE. We also spent some time outlining how these two expectations could be put into action/into practice. For their own goal, we have urged them to make being INDEPENDENT their goal for themselves in the library because ultimately we want them to use the library in such a manner and with confidence.”

LIBRARY EXPECTATIONS 2018

• To document any new library policies, duties and procedures as they are created and house these within the Policy folder including the Yearly Planner.
• To workshop the library search module to new staff when visiting the library. This will be done on an individual needs basis.
• To complement the PYP program i.e. the Units of Inquiry by using the IB Planner as found in Atlas Rubicon (adding the addendum of library perspective in Section 9) of said Planner.
• To assist the upper year levels, mainly Yrs. 4 and 5 with the Mini-Exhibition and main Exhibition, to develop efficient research skills using the internet and non-fiction resources and to fine-tune their research approach and develop a simple Bibliography.
• To engender the love of reading throughout all classes in providing an enriched Literature Appraisal program at all year levels including some Author study segments.
• To organise a fun-filled Book Week activities program including Book Fair, Character parade and where financially possible, a live performance.
• To manage our daily library duties ensuring that each one of the library staff performs their task as efficiently and capably as possible. To have team work ethos throughout the year.
• To liaise with team leaders (when time-tabling allows this) in regards to providing library resources or assisting with the Units of Inquiry in particular during high peak times of Exhibition demands.
• To ensure that the library is a pleasant and stimulating environment for everyone to enjoy.
• To run semi-regular library staff meetings to ensure that we remain on task and follow the Yearly Planner.

How can you be ORGANISED in the library?

• By knowing the Essential Agreement (Perspective- a key concept)
• By knowing the Parts of a book (Form)
• By being caring with the other students, library staff and resources (Profile)
• By being Responsible with the resources in the library and your equipment (Profile and Key Concept)

HOW THE WORLD WORKS

• Natural world
• Laws of nature
• Science
• Technology
• Humans

HOW WE EXPRESS

OURSELVES

• Expression
• Feelings
• Nature

HOW WE ORGANISE OURSELVES

• Systems
• Laws
• Environment
• Economics

BELOW ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF ARTICLES WRITTEN FOR OUR E-NEWSLETTERS AND MAGAZINE.

There certainly is an air of impending holiday feeling, alive at school and everyone seems to be more cheerful and excited for the long summer holidays ahead. Could I please ask you all to ensure you don’t have a library book at home which belongs to the school library? If you do, could you all please very kindly return them to the primary school library as soon as you can? We try to teach the children to be responsible and your support in this is gratefully appreciated as I’m certain you all feel that being responsible is a lifelong social skill that stands us all in good stead. On behalf of the primary library staff, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very safe and happy, long summer holiday! Do please try to visit your local public libraries as they are a great place to be!

• LIBRARY—PRIMARY SCHOOL
• When you consider the special events we have in the library namely the National Simultaneous story time where a selected book by the Australian Library Association, this year called “Hickory, Dickory Dash” by Tony Wilson and shared nationwide at the same time at 11am in May; Book Week where a number of story books are short-listed and then the winners announced during August; the Book Fair where many different types of books are sold; the Premier’s Reading Challenge where children are challenged to read 15 and 30 books depending on their ages; all include the emphasis on Reading and the beauty of books as a means of exploring and learning more about the world around us and how the world works. Is it any wonder then that our emphasis as educators is to ensure that students are equipped with excellent literacy skills to be able to navigate their way through the myriad forms of literary writing and various genres of reading? In the library we try to equip the children with the necessary knowledge of the parts of a book—Form being the Key Concept here; how the library works and how to use the Non-Fiction books—Function being the Key Concept there. We also discuss the Key Concept of Responsibility with the students as we want them to use the library wisely.   (These Key concepts are a part of our IB Curriculum.)
• As part of that, we also consider the Transdisciplinary Themes within the IB curriculum which classifies the scope of the world into 6 defining groups and in particular, emphasise to the students that “How we organise ourselves” as a Transdisciplinary theme is much used and focussed on within the library because without “organisation” the library would be a difficult place to navigate, for example, we talk to children about the different types of storybooks: Picture books and Chapter books and that within these two main types there are different genres of books for instance, fairy tales, ghost stories, animal stories, mystery and suspense stories, adventure stories and so on. We also use the Transdisciplinary theme of “Who we Are” to get across the message that as library users, we are in fact, library citizens and as such we need to show some of the IB curriculum Attitudes of Caring and being Principled when using any library items. We also practise the use of being Reflective, as a goal and an achievement of an IB learner. Most children become familiar with these words throughout the year and are able to give examples of each Attitude and Profile during that time. After reading most books we reflect on the characters, their motivations and the outcomes. All these aspects are wonderful facets to aspire to and attain just like the love of reading which becomes a life-long habit and friend. Happy reading!! Best wishes and have a safe and long holiday.

Ms Iman

WE HOPE YOU KEEP VISITING OUR BLOG AND DON’T FORGET TO ADD ANY COMMENTS AS YOU PLEASE.

The Primary school library staff consists of Ms. Iman,

Ms. Rawia and Ms. Evelina

 

Scholastic Book Fair is coming!

We are happy to let you know that the Scholastic Book Fair is coming to our School!   They will be here from Tuesday 11^th September until Monday 18^th September, which will be Weeks 8 & 9 of Term 3 (Insha’Allah).

It will be held in the Foyer of our Library.

We hope you take this opportunity to allow your child to purchase wonderful, educational and/or fun gifts from the Scholastic Book Fair.

Please ensure that your child brings money to school for the Book Fair, only on the day that they are scheduled to come to the library. Please note that the Book Fair will not be open during recess or lunch time. But it will be open for parents/guardians, at the end of the school day only.

Until we meet again… in Term 3

Amazing to think just how quickly these first six months of the year have flown!! here we are at the end of semester one already!! and on behalf of the library staff, we’d like to wish everyone a happy and safe mid-year holiday break!!

Please don’t forget to read to your children, with your children or listen to them read to you!! Some time this week, a student asked me: ” …but what do we get from all this reading and listening to stories?..” I was pleased that he asked this and to me, the answer is simple! It’s all about the enjoyment, the escapism, the hope and empathy- building that stories can engender in us!! They can capture our imagination, extend our vocabulary and cultural experiences to name a few!! They can transport us to a different time, space and realm!! as well as fill our time with literary enrichment. So please try to share this time with your children and ask questions along the way! If only for a half hour a day! It’s like “medicine” for the mind and we highly recommend it! Please also take advantage of the great school holiday programs provided in public libraries. They have some terrific activities for children. All in all, we want to wish you all a wonderful holiday! whatever you may be doing! and we’ll see you back in Term 3, I.A.     

Best wishes from the Primary library staff at A.I.A